Michael Hopcroft Posted October 9, 2006 Report Share Posted October 9, 2006 "I'm sorry -- we didn't know you guys were still around." "Well next time, do some research." Imagine you were a Cro-Magnon or Neandethal, and you and your friends find that you are in the modern world. How long would it take you to master modern living, given that you really have no choice in the matter? What role would you assume in the modern world? Perhaps you lived in a community that had existed, unsuspected by modern Man, for twelve to thirteen thousand years, and have suddenly been discovered. or perhaps your group was plucked out of their time and placed in the present day without any input on your part. How would this work as a campaign? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted October 9, 2006 Report Share Posted October 9, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman With or without Pauly Shore? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted October 9, 2006 Report Share Posted October 9, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman It's about time, It's about space, About strange people in the strangest place. It's about time, It's about flight, Travelin' faster than the speed of light. About space people and a brave crew, As through the barrier of time they flew. Pass the Roman Senators, Pass an armored knight, Pass the firing Minutemen, To this modern site. It's about time for you and me To meet these people of amazing feats. It's about two astronauts and how they educate A pre-historic woman and her pre-historic mate. It's about time It's about space About strange people in the strangest place They will be here With all of us Dodging a taxi, a car, a bus. Where will they go What will they do In this strange place where everything is new. Will they manage to survive Watch each week and see. Will they get accustomed to the Twentieth Century. It's about time For our good byes To all our pre-historic gals and guys. And now, It's About Time It's About Time It's About Time It's About Time! Keith "It's About Time!" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Badger Posted October 10, 2006 Report Share Posted October 10, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman Dude, I cant master modern living in real life. How the heck could I deal with it as a Neanderthal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lucius Posted October 10, 2006 Report Share Posted October 10, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman Oh, it wouldn't be long before I had a job as a camaraman and was saving hundreds of dollars on my car insurance. And using phrases like "That's so condescending." Lucius Alexander Riding a cave palindromedary Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Monster Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman It's about time, It's about space, About strange people in the strangest place. It's about time, It's about flight, Travelin' faster than the speed of light. About space people and a brave crew, As through the barrier of time they flew. Pass the Roman Senators, Pass an armored knight, Pass the firing Minutemen, To this modern site. It's about time for you and me To meet these people of amazing feats. It's about two astronauts and how they educate A pre-historic woman and her pre-historic mate. It's about time It's about space About strange people in the strangest place They will be here With all of us Dodging a taxi, a car, a bus. Where will they go What will they do In this strange place where everything is new. Will they manage to survive Watch each week and see. Will they get accustomed to the Twentieth Century. It's about time For our good byes To all our pre-historic gals and guys. And now, It's About Time It's About Time It's About Time It's About Time! Keith "It's About Time!" Curtis Oh My Goodness! It has been FOREVER since I heard or thought of that show! Repped! (argh - or will be once I spread some around!) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman It's surprising how little about it is available on the web. I did find this: Keith "Only has the vaguest memories of the show, but does have the theme song" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman Imagine you were a Cro-Magnon or Neandethal, and you and your friends find that you are in the modern world. How long would it take you to master modern living, given that you really have no choice in the matter? What role would you assume in the modern world? I'm betting the words "NFL linebacker" will be involved somehow. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlestaff Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman They would probably soon succeed. Look at prior successful caveman in modern times: Captain Caveman (and the Teen Angels) Unfrozen Caveman Lawyer (ah, Phil Hartman, how we miss you). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evil Steve Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman Survival Guide. He could teach people what he's been doing all his life. No eat that. Eat that. Make spear. Make fire. Follow those tracks for food. Go opposite way of those tracks or be food. He could get his own show on OLN. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted October 11, 2006 Report Share Posted October 11, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman Tarzan made the transition pretty easily. Of course he had those superior Greystoke genes and all. Keith "Can't count the number of times I've said Gaystroke" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
McCoy Posted October 12, 2006 Report Share Posted October 12, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman It's surprising how little about it is available on the web. I did find this: Keith "Only has the vaguest memories of the show, but does have the theme song" Curtis Given that it lasted one season, and jumped the shark halfway through that, I'm amazed there's anything on it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BNakagawa Posted October 12, 2006 Report Share Posted October 12, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman Ishi got along pretty well. Probably good fodder for a reality tv show, if nothing else. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted October 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman Tarzan made the transition pretty easily. Of course he had those superior Greystoke genes and all. Which must really be annoying to those trying to read Burruoghs with a 21st-century perspective. When expanding the world of the Dinsey Tarzan film for television, the producers had to dins some way to deal with the fact that the movie had presented an Africa completely devoid of Africans. It's kind of hard to do a non-racist Tarzan film or TV series, whether you set it in Africa or India, but the TV series made a game effort -- Tarzan did run into African characters who were, like him, superbly adapted to the environment in which they lived both physically and mentally. Early versions almost always portrayed the "dusky heathens" as mentally inferior to Cheetah and childishly easy for Eurpoean villains to manipulate. I wonder if Disney would have been better served making a John Carter move than a Tarzan one, but this is a side note more than anything else. One of the '60s Hanna-Barbera supers cartoons, "Dino Boy", presented a nice take on this problem. The hero was a twelve-year-old stranded in a Lost World setting by a plane crash. He had some book smarts, but was no match for his new environment. Still, he had the good fortune to befriend a Neanderthal warrior and teach him rudimentary English, because the caveman's intimate knowledge of his environment and the world around him saved the kid's life on virtually an hourly basis, and fortunately the boy was too young and naive not to view the caveman as his equal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted October 12, 2006 Report Share Posted October 12, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman It's kind of hard to do a non-racist Tarzan film or TV series' date=' whether you set it in Africa or India, but the TV series made a game effort -- Tarzan did run into African characters who were, like him, superbly adapted to the environment in which they lived both physically and mentally. Early versions almost always portrayed the "dusky heathens" as mentally inferior to Cheetah and childishly easy for Eurpoean villains to manipulate.[/quote'] Yes, the original novel was racist in that unapologetic Pulp Hero sort of way. The black nursemaid immediately springs to mind. Smartly, Disney decided to walk away from that, though it really doesn't bother me while reading the novel I wonder if Disney would have been better served making a John Carter move than a Tarzan one' date=' but this is a side note more than anything else.[/quote']Thank Issus they didn't do this. I can't see it as a musical comedy. ...Still' date=' he had the good fortune to befriend a Neanderthal warrior and teach him rudimentary English, because the caveman's intimate knowledge of his environment and the world around him saved the kid's life on virtually an hourly basis...[/quote'] That reminds me of Valley of the Dinosaurs. Of course in that one, the modern family was constantly saving the locals with fabulous scientific devices like the compass and the lever. Keith "Cringing at the thought of a Thark chorus" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted October 12, 2006 Report Share Posted October 12, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman I wonder if Disney would have been better served making a John Carter move than a Tarzan one' date=' but this is a side note more than anything else.[/quote'] For the record, a John Carter film is in the works. http://imdb.com/title/tt0401729/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted October 12, 2006 Report Share Posted October 12, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman Last I heard, it had been shelved till 2008 to make way for (yet another) Star Trek movie, A "proven moneymaker". The Trivia entry does not sound promising. Given the track record on this book, I'm not holding my breath. Keith "They wouldn't do it right, anyhow" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susano Posted October 12, 2006 Report Share Posted October 12, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman Last I heard, it had been shelved till 2008 to make way for (yet another) Star Trek movie, A "proven moneymaker". The Trivia entry does not sound promising. Given the track record on this book, I'm not holding my breath. Keith "They wouldn't do it right, anyhow" Curtis Ugh... I see what you mean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Hopcroft Posted October 12, 2006 Author Report Share Posted October 12, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman Thank Issus they didn't do this. I can't see it as a musical comedy. The main reason Tarzan didn't work on that level (and why the Broadway version is drawing tepid reviews) is that Phil Collins, as a composer, lacks an understanding of the theatrical. The film lacked the sort of heart-stirring numbers that punctuated the best films of the Disney revival; the team of Ashman and Mencken were Tony-winning Broadway veterans (their Little Shop of Horrors predated their Disney work), Tim Rice had written the book and lyrics to one of the most provocative and dramatic musical tragedies of the 2oth century, and if there is one quality Elton John has always possessed it is a flair for the dramatic. "Musical comedy" is something of a misnomer anyway, and has been ever since Show Boat and Oklahoma!. The Disney musicals were adventure/romance films that skirted the edge of tragedy, and in some cases (most notably The Hunchback of Notre Dame) crossed straight over it (Frollo was a villain, true, but he was a tragic character in the same way Macbeth and Michael Corleone are -- men of ability, but whose characters had flaws that propelled them into a moral abyss and their own destruction. Tony Jay, who passed away this year, possibly gave one of the greatest English-language animation voice performances in history in that film.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted October 12, 2006 Report Share Posted October 12, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman I don't think Tarzan failed to work as musical comedy because of the music. I happen to like that soundtrack quite a bit. It fails as romance I feel, because there is none. Boy meets girl, slow attraction builds, at some point they're in love, wait--what part did we miss? There's no comedic build to it at all, no tension. The characters never really have any difficulty attracting to each other beyond initial shock. Ho-Hum. Where Tarzan does succeed is in the action (at least as far as is possible in a children's movie). Never before or since has the description of how Tarzan moves been captured so well. Yes, there was a lot of skateboard influence, but the fluidity and sense of flying through the tree tops was there. As for Hunchback being in any way a tragedy, I have to disagree. Yes, Frollo dies by his own faults, but so does nearly every Disney villain. I swear, if I was a Disney villain, I would never chase anyone, particularly upon any sort of height. Frollo might be considered a tragic figure if he had any redeeming virtues. He isn't flawed, he's just bad. Now the original Hunchback is a tragedy, and much more depressing in the ending. I might also add that I spent half the book wanting to slap Esmeralda and stab Phoebus. Keith "Spell checker wanted me to type Tartan. Now a Scottish ape-man would be cool." Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Captain Obvious Posted October 13, 2006 Report Share Posted October 13, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman I don't know what Tarzan saw in that Jane tramp, anyway. Imagine, a woman of her class traipsing about the jungle in her underclothes. Shocking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keithcurtis Posted October 13, 2006 Report Share Posted October 13, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman I spent a lot of that movie wondering when Jane became British. Keith "Still, better than Bo" Curtis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
input.jack Posted October 14, 2006 Report Share Posted October 14, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman Keith "Spell checker wanted me to type Tartan. Now a Scottish ape-man would be cool." Curtis Would bring a whole new leyer of meaning to "Hooting from the trees" Hoot mon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted October 14, 2006 Report Share Posted October 14, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman poean villains to manipulate. I wonder if Disney would have been better served making a John Carter move than a Tarzan one, but this is a side note more than anything else. Deja Thoris: Disney Heroine? I don't think she would survive the wardrobe and political correctness makeover Disney would give her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vondy Posted October 14, 2006 Report Share Posted October 14, 2006 Re: L.A. Caveman Imagine you were a Cro-Magnon or Neandethal, and you and your friends find that you are in the modern world. How long would it take you to master modern living, given that you really have no choice in the matter? What role would you assume in the modern world? Perhaps you lived in a community that had existed, unsuspected by modern Man, for twelve to thirteen thousand years, and have suddenly been discovered. or perhaps your group was plucked out of their time and placed in the present day without any input on your part. How would this work as a campaign? Do we have any firm data on the cognitive abilities of Neandrathal and Cro-Magnon man? Hard to tell without it. Personally, you could probably make a good living as a university anthropology department's live in guest. Just hang out on campus and help the researchers. Considering fraternity culture, a "cave-man" might be regarded as genteel and sophisticated - a real hit with the ladies. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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